Peggy McIntosh stated ‘I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group'(Rudolph, n.d). These invisible systems we confine in bring unfairness to others around us. We all have unjust privileges that were assigned to us at birth that give us an unfair advantage over other individuals. So, an example can be first world privilege because of where we were born, we enjoy a comfortable life. We do not struggle to find food or clean water. The important thing is we do not take advantage of these privileges and that we do not allow others to give us an unfair advantage because of our privilege because doing so oppresses others. The first step to ending oppression is recognizing your privileges and becoming aware of them.
Imagine your life’s successes being determined by a footrace, nothing holding you back from giving the best performance you can give to win it all. However, the two races we encounter on a daily basis throughout our life are inequality and inequity. Imagine there are two people placed on a track having to run the same distance at the same time; however, the obstacles and burdens are different from one another. Inequality is when a person with white privilege has no hurdles in their lane and the person of color has hurdles to overcome. The hurdles they face represent the real tangible problems they must deal with which can be our legal system.
Inequity is when both people in the race can run without obstacles, but they are weighed down by a burden that only they carry. The burden on their back can be the intangible stigmas, or subconscious biases everyone has. Although the hurdles are removed, the person of color still has to tame the subconscious biases that drag them down. Therefore, if we remove all these barriers and give both people the same opportunity, this creates fairness and turning America into the ideal one we yearn for.
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Equality and equity are two strategies used to create fairness, equality is giving someone what they need to be successful and equity is treating everyone the same. Throughout the many years since the United States claimed their independence in 1776, our society had been clashing between one another with these concepts to bring fairness within every race. Equality has always been the main one we focused on because it aims to promote fairness, but it can only work if everyone starts from the same place and gets the same help. As the years have gone by we have never been able to reach this stage of fairness we have been searching for due to white privilege. For example, recently CNN analyst Areva Martin interviewed David Webb, a Fox News contributor During their interview Martin assumed Webb was successful due to having white privilege on his side.
Webb then interrupts her to let her know he’s a black man, causing Martin to take a pause. “You see, you went to white privilege; this is the falsehood in this,” Webb replies. “You went immediately with an assumption. Your people, obviously, or you didn’t look. Martin apologizes repeatedly for her false accusation, adding that “her people” gave her the wrong information(Brice-Saddler, 2019).
A lot of people who have this privilege do not acknowledge it or do not really understand the meaning of white privilege.
A huge number of people want to deny it because they think that all it means is that they did not work hard for what they have and everything they have was given to them due to the color of their skin, which is not what it means at all. All it means is they are the dominant racial group in America, and they are represented in the media better than other racial groups. B Merchant wrote in an article that:
“A recent survey asked half of the 969 Southerners surveyed if they thought that whites in America have “privileges” that nonwhites do not have. The other half were asked if they thought nonwhites in America experience “barriers.” Ninety-two percent of African-Americans reported seeing examples of white “privilege” in society, as did 50 percent of whites. Among supporters of the Confederate flag, 36 percent agreed whites have a privileged status that nonwhites lack” (B Merchant, 2019).
This group is not discriminated against in institutions like minorities are. Their ‘look’ is the standard of beauty while women and men that are minorities are made to believe they are ugly in America because they lack Caucasian features. White privilege is when you are able to get a job because you have a culturally white name. It is when you go to fashion shows and only see skinny Caucasian models and no other women of other races and it is when the cops target minorities in the shopping mall and walk right pass whites who were stealing. It is when white convicts are more likely to get a job than black convicts of the same exact charges and it is when cops guard the white neighborhoods but circle minority populated neighborhoods. The whites who say they don’t go by race and go by religion are still white and are still recipients of privileges that minorities don’t have or cannot easily obtain in this country. Once these people that have white privilege realize that they are privileged, the better of the issue could be fixed in our society.
On the contrary, white privilege can be viewed as a rage tactic created by the media as an excuse for failure within minority communities. This term is often used to shame the hardworking and successful white people by insinuating that they succeeded not because of their merit but because of the so-called mythical white privilege. At this point in time, there is “colored privilege” in America. Throughout the years, the problem of inequality and inequity have not been solved at all. The roles have only switched from one another and colored privilege has the upper hand in our society. It was invented it to explain disparities between white and colored communities. The prevailing theory is that all the races are equal to each other, yet minorities are still majority poor. So, Minorities claim that there is white privilege – a system that favors whites over non-whites which is not true when you consider other minorities who are successful in America.
To some degree, Minorities do have a strong point. What they call white privilege is an admission from them that they cannot function within this system. Historically, America was founded and built by white people and for white people. Western Civilization is a product of white culture and its values. It was never designed as a multiracial society. When minorities claim that they have trouble fitting into this society, it is true because our society is built on a foundation which does not reflect their cultural values. They have to ‘sell out’ and act white to succeed in white society.
Our legal system sought to balance out this unfairness by creating affirmative action. Yet, all that did was create colored privilege that can mostly be seen within employment or education. For instance, K Reilly stated that the Harvard case has fueled a longstanding debate over affirmative action policies that traditionally benefit African-American and Latino students in an effort to offset centuries of racial discrimination. While previous high-profile affirmative action cases have featured white students, this challenge positions minority students as the plaintiffs (K Reilly, 2018). Every high-school student knows that given similar scholastic and extra-curricular records, one’s chances of being accepted into a prestigious college is considerably greater if one is a member of a minority.
Although, the media and society places such an emphasis on white privilege and how white people have it so easy in life, it’s not that easy to realize that everyone in some way has privilege. Stepping back and looking at the broad picture white people do have privilege that does help them succeed in life, but so do colored people because of all the societal programs in place to help them. Being aware of everyone’s privilege in life will not only create a more equal society but a more equitable one in which everyone can have equal opportunity with equal equity.
